


“there’s no way” - oneypebbles

by possumboy



Category: newgrounds - Fandom, oneygays - Fandom, oneyplays, psychicpebbles, sleepycabin, sleepycast, youtube - Fandom
Genre: ALSO THERE ARE FOR SURE GONNA BE TIME SKIPS, M/M, Slow Burn, also chris and zach are the main focus, as will lyle and tomar, be real tho if ur watching these guys u probably don’t care, but here’s the warning anyways, dingdong and julian will be in it eventually, f slur used, i’m also gonna update tags as i go, just assume all the sleepycabin boys will be around at some point, slurs used, the more i write this the more i realize this is SUCH a slow burn fic oh no, uhhhh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:22:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24588268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/possumboy/pseuds/possumboy
Summary: there’s just no way. there’s no way they could ever not be friends, there’s no way they’re not gonna do a tv show together, and there’s no way they’re gay for each other. unless?chris and zach have a lot of repressed feelings from how they were raised and when the pot gets left on the stove too long it boils over. i’m really bad at naming fics.
Relationships: Chris O’Neill/Zach Hadel, OneyPebbles, Oneygays
Comments: 20
Kudos: 28





	1. Chapter 1

it was the little things, never enough to strike question (not even within themselves), but they were definitely there. tiny gestures that meant so much more than they could rap their tiny little monkey brains around. chris was always the first one up, and any morning he’d care to, he’d make himself breakfast. the first time he had leftovers, he put them in one of his own tupperware, “o’neill” sprawled plainly and clearly across the lid. by the evening he found that very same container in the sink, later to find zach to be the culprit. the next time he had leftovers he paced them in a different container, one with a big “Z” poorly drawn on. every time since he’s done the same. 

zach was always the last to bed. as someone who’s been known to literally scream in his sleep, he found it courteous to be the final one to hit the sack each night, even if it meant staying up ungodly hours waiting for someone else in the house to finish a project on time for a deadline. many times while waiting he’d hear chris’s door open, then the bathroom door, the faucet running, followed by someone very obviously slurping water out of their hands, the bathroom door shut, then chris’s door shut. you get good at telling which door makes which sound when you’re up to hear them all close at night. chris was always the first to bed (always by 10), so zach took it upon himself to leave a glass of water in the bathroom in one of chris’s novelty cups. each night after he only heard the door open and shut proceeded by the same cup in the sink the next morning. this became a routine. 

that’s what best friends did for each other right? since they first started talking they knew they’d be best friends. every late night/early morning skype call while chris still lived in ireland just sealed that deal. and they were both ecstatic when the opportunity arose to live in a house together with their other close friends. but man, living with your best friend? that was the dream!! zach even had a countdown app on his phone that told him how many days it was til chris was in america and they were living together. chris marked exes on his calendar as the day grew nearer. 

zach was the one to pick chris up from the airport and god he was practically vibrating with excitement. sure, he’d already met chris, they had gone and spent a week in california and they had a great time together but that ended. this time he was staying, this time it _wouldn’t end._

“so queermo, you actually gonna help me with all this shit or are ya gonna stand there like an ape?”

the voice immediately broke zach out of his thoughts. 

“chris!!” he wrapped his arms around the taller man without thinking and completely dismissing the jab at him. chris immediately hugged back without a second thought. he hadn’t seen the guy in a few years after all and he did give a damn good hug. and the hug may have went on a little long, not that either of them would admit it, let alone mention it. god, it was just nice to be in each other’s presence again. 

“so how’s the house?” chris questioned, pulling away.

“very orange and incredibly tiny, you’ll get used it,” zach said rather dryly, causing chris to quirk a brow. “i’m kidding, well not about the orange thing tho. i mean it’s really nice!! we each have our own room, the bathroom is huge, and the kitchen has so much space! we each get our own cabinet, dude!” 

“well i’d love to see it instead of standing here then.” the sarcasm rang out of chris.

“yeah, yeah, fine. what do you need me to carry?”

-

the taxi ride felt incredibly short with all chris blabbered on about. from how excited he was to be living in america, his mom crying in the airport, how a lot more of his family showed up than expected to see him off, how he couldn’t believe he was getting to live with his friends, and how excited he was to be working on animation full time. the hardly noticed the taxi stopped til the driver told them if they stayed in the car any longer he was turning the meter back on. scurrying to grab all of chris’s belongings, they left the car arms full and sure to tip the man a little extra for putting up with their shenanigans. zach was quick to get his keys out and open the front door. 

“guys, come help us!!” 

from their respective rooms, out stumbled mick and stamper down the stairs to help with the luggage but more importantly to meet their friend and new roommate in person.

“goddamn you’re huge!” stamper was quick to point out, “i thought you’d be like regular people size but you’re fuckin massive, dawg!” 

“i’m 6’3 idiot, i didn’t know my friends were all midgets.” chris shot back, stealing a look at mick who just shrugged as he grabbed a box.

“let’s go pick out your room, c’mon” mick said over his shoulder already partially up the stairs. “i already took the master bed by the way but i’m gonna fork out a little extra for rent. i’m just not down to share a bathroom with 5 other dudes. other than that they’re all about the same size. stamper took the one closest to the bathroom though.”

“what can i say, i get the shits easy,” stamper piped in.

“thank you for that. and zach took this one,” mick pointed towards the room at the end of the hall, “leaving these three. why don’t you have a look?”

“i’ll take that one,” chris point to the one next zach’s. it was definitely a subconscious decision. because when questioned he didn’t have an answer.  


“feels right, i guess. plus it’s right across from the bathroom since stamper took the one next to it.”

“alright then,” mick continued, “cory will be here next week. do you know when niall is coming in? i don’t want whoever comes in last to get pissy over not getting a choice.”

“niall’s still dealing with some green card bs, he could be coming tomorrow or in a month.” chris huffed, plopping a box atop the mattress.

“alright so he doesn’t get a choice then. hurry and unpack, i wanna get wawa.” stamper said and dipped out the room. mick rolled his eyes and followed him out. zach stayed behind.

“you need help dude?”

chris smiled. “yeah man, thanks.” 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i know this was way shorter than the first chapter i’m sorry, but this was just kinda to establish the vibes between the two and show a lil sweet moment. 
> 
> i don’t exactly have chapter three written yet sooo idk what to do about that yet lmaoooo  
> anyways i’m very alive on tumblr @fantastictrashgoblin if u wanna request anything or message me there<3

four rapid taps on his door made for a very sleepy and grumpy zach. he marked this as another reason he went to sleep after everyone. pushing on his glasses, he stumbled his way to the door to see who could possibly be awake to bother him. he grumbled to to himself as he poked his head out his door.

“chris?” he was immediately pushed pass. “chris what the fuck?”

“don’tmakefunofmedude.” the words were quick out of his mouth, too fast for zach to comprehend.

“huh?”

“please, i’m asking you not to give me shit for this, okay?” chris spoke again voice cracking just a bit. he was standing stiff, arms folded in. zach’s eyes focused a bit more to see chris was biting down on his lower lip with tears in his eyes.

“woah dude, i won’t, just sit down and tell me what’s up.” zach said making an attempt to keep chris a little bit calmer. he hadn’t seen chris vulnerable like this before. he couldn’t even recall seeing him more than just bummed out.

chris plopped down on the bed and slumped over, putting his head in his hands as zach sat himself down next to him. “i just had a shitty dream, people back in ireland callin me shit, then i woke up and i couldn’t move, sleep paralysis, and this demon thing started coming at me and it scared the shit out of me, my hearts still racing and i’m just,” he glanced up at zach, “scared.” the last word sounded so sad, like a lost little boy. 

“hey man, it’s alright, it’s over. i’m not gonna make fun of you for getting freaked out by that, that shits scary.” zach said it, and the sincerity of it comforted chris more than he knew he needed. the hand zach placed on his shoulder only made him feel safer as he relaxed into it.

“thanks. i didn’t know who to bother, i know stamper woulda given me shit for it and mick has a thing in the morning but i just didn’t wanna be alone, ya know?” he spoke, stealing another glance, “i know i live here now but it just doesn’t feel like i live here. it’s pretty faggy of me, i know.” he said shooting zach a half smile.

“most of the things you do are pretty faggy, dude.” zach said returning the half smile and chuckling.

“hey, fuck you, man,” chris laughed, pushing his friend. 

the two continued to joke around, zach doing his best to keep chris’s mind off his nightmares, sharing dopey grins, and half baked jokes that were much funnier at 2:30 in the morning then they would’ve been at any other time. the more tired they got the more open they were. speaking through a half asleep haze, chris confided in zach how he was scared to be living in america and so far from his family, and how he was afraid he’d get too home sick and would have to leave everything here behind, and how he didn’t wanna leave zach behind. zach comforted him, reassuring that this would feel like home soon enough, and they’d only been there a month and it wasn’t gonna come quickly. he also promised that all of their friends were their family now and they wouldn’t be mad, he wouldn’t be mad, if chris did need to move back. this was the moment chris really started to feel at home.  
zach told chris how he felt so lucky to be living with his friends and his best friend and how happy he was to not be at home where everything was so strikingly christian and he was afraid to be a real person with real feelings there. chris returned the reassurance, telling him he was free to “do whatever the fuck he wanted here.” chris was not the greatest at sentiment. zach knew chris well enough to know he was being sincere, and he felt relief and thankfulness wash over him. they continued to talk for hours about nonsense and any topic they could put their sleep deprived minds to. they both eventually fell asleep sitting up, supporting each other’s weight. it wasn’t until zach woke up because of a sore back that he found he’d fallen asleep next to his friend. waking him and getting him to stand, he lead a hardly awake chris back to his own bedroom. it was 6am. zach made his way back to his own room. he still had a few precious hours of shuteye. he wouldn’t remember it, but his final thought as he faded back to sleep was how nice it was to not fall asleep alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow i actually have to keep my word on this fic now. ch 3 is in the works!!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sorry this took so long!! i’ve had a lot going on and zero motivation lmao
> 
> this chapter is longer!! yay!!

“so how much can you tell us about hellbenders?” cory questioned. it’s been a few months since the initial move in, and sleepycabin had birthed its own podcast, lovingly called sleepycast. 

“definitely not a lot,” zach chimed in, “just that it’s getting worked on. i know we’ve talked about how long animation takes before and obviously you guys know that but-“

“it’s just completely time consuming reaching the deadlines, i’m hardly working on anything else right now,” chris interrupted, “like zach said all we can say is we’re working on it.” working on it for hours and hours and hours a day. chris was just a little behind on his work for it and his head spun thinking of his next work day. chris only snapped back into conversation when he heard cory call him a fag. 

“who you callin fag, cory? you got no room to speak.” chris joked at him. the dig at him hurt him just a bit more than he’d care to admit. _it was just a joke,_ he thought. _it was just a joke._

“well you and zach are fags for each other in the show,” cory was quick to quip back and laugh about it. and mick snickered along. zach laughed about it too, his face just a little bit red. _at least zach thought it was funny,_ he thought bitterly. chris forced himself to laugh about it too.

“yeah but it’s just a joke” chris spoke through his forced laughter, hoping cory would just drop it.

“i don’t know dude you guys are the ones who wrote it in,” 

the thought of zach and him in that situation irl flashed in his mind and he went beat red, “i’m not the one drawing dicks, fuckhead!” 

“HEY MAN IF IM GETTING MONEY FROM IT WHO CARES”  
zach started laughing to the point of wheezing, infectious enough to get the whole party laughing too. chris’s anger subsided as he began to laugh too. 

“okay, okay let’s move on,” mick said coming down from his own laughter, and conversation was dropped. chris was thankful.

-

it was 3am, and chris’s eyes burned from staring at his computer screen. the almost finished background on screen seemed to glare back at him.  
“fuck,” chris mumbled to himself. he could feel his back aching. it had been hours since they wrapped their podcast up and he had decided to get caught up on his hellbenders work. he figured he could crank out a couple backgrounds no problem before he went to bed and he was feeling good about it, even proud when the first one got done quick. the second one didn’t come as easy but hey no complaints there so it was fine. now he sat looking at the almost complete third one of the night, hating everything about it and not knowing how to fix it. not knowing what to do was pissing him off more than anything. 

“fuuuuuck,” chris groaned placing his head in his hands and squeezing his temples.

“all good?” 

chris’s head snapped around to see zach standing in his doorway. he could’ve sworn he closed that.  
“no, i’m not, but thanks for asking dipshit,” he gave a halfassed smile to his friend, almost relieved by the distraction. “i can’t figure out this fuckin background, i swear to god i’ve been workin’ on it for hours and staring at it for longer because i hate it so much,” he said pushing his chair away from his desk to fully face zach. “i just can’t fully get my head around it, man.”

“dude, it sounds like you’re burnt out,” zach made his way over to the screen and leaned in to check his friend’s progress. chris felt his heart rate pick up as zach leaned in front of him but quickly chalked it up to being nervous over the judgment that was to come. “and it looks good anyways, i don’t know what you’re stressing over, i mean besides the fact you’re kind of a perfectionist about your backgrounds,” zach gave a chuckle and pulled away, his face splashed a bit pink from the close proximity, not that chris would notice from being too much in his own head about the encounter even with his eyes fixed on his friend. 

chris watched as zach pulled away, feeling like he was experiencing it in slow motion, taking in each part of what his friend was wearing, and how he looked.. cute? yeah, cute in that ratty old tshirt and lounge pants. what the fuck, wait this was zach, hold the phone. chris shook his head, almost as if he was shaking those thoughts out of his mind, and gave a chuckle back.  
“hey man, you got no room to talk! i’ve seen you three days deep in animation and that’s a whole different ugly beast,” chris shot back laughing, and trying his best to pull himself out of whatever the fuck those thoughts were. zach laughed and pushed his friend. if chris wasn’t already flushed from his passing thoughts, he certainly was now at this physical contact. thank god the lightning in his room was so shit that zach wouldn’t notice. 

“hey, fuck you man,” zach said,  
smiling. chris laughed, turning himself back to his computer. he sighed looking back at his screen.

“i think i’m done for the night. maybe i’ll like it better when i come back to it tomorrow,” he glared daggers into his monitor. “i’m just so fuckin burnt out man, when it’s not this, it’s script writing, and when it’s not that, it’s recording,” he placed his head in his hands again, feeling like he was about to give himself a headache.

“don’t work tomorrow then,”

“what?” chris’s face squished itself into a look of confusion. “yeah, right dude,” chris rolled his eyes.

“i’m serious,” zach told him deadpanned. chris raised an eyebrow at him, but he continued, “take a break. honestly i’m getting burnt out too. we just won’t work tomorrow.” chris still looked skeptical, quirking an eyebrow at his friend. just not work? but he had so much to do. “listen man,” zach said, “i’ve done it before and it works, like for real. if i spend the day doing nothing i’ll get motivated, it’ll make me _want _to work. i know it sounds stupid but it’s kept me going this far.” he smiled at chris, “give it chance dude.”__

____

____

how could chris refuse? “fine. but if it doesn’t work and i become a lazy slob because of it, i’m suing you,” chris said, pointing his finger at zach accusingly. 

“you’re already a lazy slob,” zach retorted, hardly containing his laughter at the end of his sentence. 

“hey!” chris started to get up and zach took that as his invitation to scram. before chris was fully out of his chair zach was already closing his door and telling him to sleep in and figure out a movie. 

chris shook his head and closed his door. pulling off his shirt, he plopped himself into bed and shut off his bedside lamp. he was truly exhausted but when his head hit the pillow the unfortunately gay thoughts from earlier came flooding back. _fuck fuck fuck fuck! knock that shit off!_ he thought, rubbing his face. _you’re so tired you can’t even fuckin think straight, get it together idiot._ god he must’ve been in a dry spell if zach of all people was what was fucking with his head like that. chris tossed and turned telling himself he just needed to get a girlfriend, and he was just so horny and hadn’t fucked in so long that anyone being that close to him would’ve set him off. god he needed some pussy. he finally conked out after he had convinced himself he was as straight as ever at the same time as thinking of what movie he wanted to watch with zach tomorrow. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahsgsglagkdh i know the timeline is scrambled i’m so sorry lmao i changed it for story. 
> 
> i think ch. 4 is written but i honestly have no idea what’s in my drafts at this point oops

**Author's Note:**

> chapter updates are gonna be few and far between sorry!! chapter 4 is cooking rn and i’ll try and keep updates here :)


End file.
